This invention pertains to telephone switching systems in general.
Business communication has taken two separate paths. One involves telephone conversations and the other involving computer communication.
Until now, business telephone communications have been based upon the approach that each individual controls his own call traffic through multiple buttons on proprietary telephone instruments and/or simple commands entered through xe2x80x9chookflashxe2x80x9d or the telephone keypad. Further, the architecture and philosophy applied to business PBXs or other telephone switches is limited to the xe2x80x9cswitchingxe2x80x9d of calls, such as incoming calls, to internal stations or internal stations to internal stations. This approach strictly avoids operation based upon xe2x80x9ccall contentxe2x80x9d such as the type of call, from whom it originates, etc. The limited capabilities of the multi-button telephone instruments and the lack of awareness of call content severely restrict the capabilities and features available and thus reduce the overall effectiveness of the business telephone systems of the past.
The focus of computer technology has become the desktop workstation computer attached to one or more business enterprisewide, high-speed digital networks which interconnect the workstation computers of business enterprise""s employees with a variety of information servers, communications and computing devices. The business enterprise""s digital network may be a combination of Local Area Networks LANs and Wide Area Networks WANs attached together via a variety of transmission media augmented by the Internet. These corporate communications worlds, i.e., business enterprise""s digital networks and the public switched telephone network PSTN remain separate and distinct until now.
In accordance with the invention, a Call Management System is provided for handling business communications. The system alters the architecture and philosophy of the past, providing the users an array of new features and functions and expanded existing features.
A Call Management System provides for the real-time management of incoming voice calls by called parties. Real-time call management enables the called party to know who is calling before the call is accepted and, thus, to establish the likely priority of the call and decide how best to handle the call before his telephone rings. This method of call handling is intended to improve significantly the efficiency of the called party""s interactions with customers, vendors, coworkers, and others. Each called party is notified via his/her computer terminal of each incoming call and the caller""s identity, even when the called party""s extension is already busy, allowing the called party to choose the appropriate handling of each incoming call before ringing the extension (hold, transfer, put through, send to voice. mail, etc.
In accordance with the invention, calls to an organization are directly controlled through networked user workstation computers, not telephone instruments, a call management computer intercepts telephone and data trunks which link the business to the telephone provider""s central office. The call management computer interacts with and controls telephone and data trunks connecting with the telephone service provider.
The call management computer receives and answers all calls from the telephone provider""s central office, determines the type of call voice, fax, data, determines for whom the call is intended the called party, and proactively determines who is the calling party. This information determines how the call will be handled.
Proactive caller identification is used to identify the caller by interacting directly with the caller to obtain an identifiable telephone number or the caller""s spoken voice which are then identified through specialized primary or secondary Caller ID databases or a voice name database.
Call alert information is transferred via operator or digital network interconnecting workstation computer to the called party""s workstation, even when the called party""s telephone extension is busy. The called party instructs the call management computer via the digital network what to do with the calls in progress.
The call management computer also provides for call handling rules to be defined by the business organization or by the system users. These rules, called xe2x80x9cVIP rulesxe2x80x9d, are an adjunct to the called party""s direct control and provide for special handling of important individuals, groups or even for all callers.
The call management computer either receives control commands from the called party or operates in accordance with an appropriate VIP rule and responds to the calling party accordingly by, for example, playing out recorded voice messages, receiving additional information from the caller, transferring the call to the called party, to voice mail or elsewhere either within or outside the organization.
One significant advantage of the Call Management System is that it provides system users with the many unique features and functions while requiring nothing more than simple xe2x80x9cPOTSxe2x80x9d (plain old telephone service) telephones or headsets instead of expensive multi-button proprietary business telephone instruments.
The Call Management System also functions as an outbound call processor, working in conjunction with software in each user""s workstation to provide outbound call processing services. The personal call logs can be reviewed by a user and used to return missed phone calls through a point-and-click interface. A database containing caller identification information may also be used online for outdialing calls to selected people, all without the need for manual dialing.
The Call Management System creates reusable xe2x80x9cvoice pathwaysxe2x80x9d from the call management computer to the called party when it is appropriate to put a call through to a destination because of user selection or VIP rule processing. Voice pathways, once created, are reused repeatedly so long as the destination has calls in process. This enables rapid switching between calls with only the click of a workstation mouse and avoids the typical operation of establishing and tearing down entire calls in order to switch between them.
Real-time protocol conversion is provided between central office trunks and PBX trunks of the Call Management System. This allows the system to receive new or different types of services from the telephone provider while still connecting to and utilizing existing telephone systems which cannot otherwise accept the new capabilities directly. It also permits the Call Management System to utilize directly the user""s telephone instruments or headsets, removing the need for a separate PBX or other switch. xe2x80x9cConversionxe2x80x9d between different trunk circuits allows the system""s many new features and functions to be implemented without upgrade of the organization""s legacy PBX or other switch or alternatively as a replacement for an existing PBX.
The system monitors and controls the individual trunk circuits obtaining call content information and directly interacts with the caller to handle voice, Fax and data calls automatically in any combination.
A Call Management System in accordance with the invention treats all calls external and internal in the same way, allowing the transferring and conferencing of calls from inside to outside, outside to outside, or in any other combination. This removes the historical limitations on the handling of calls depending upon their source.
The Call Management System provides for the use of a single unique telephone number for each user. This xe2x80x9cone numberxe2x80x9d is used to receive, identify and automatically handle all the user""s voice, fax and data calls, one or several at a time using multiple trunk circuits. The use of only one number per user significantly reduces the costs, complexity, inefficiency and confusion of having multiple different telephone numbers for different functions.
Proactive caller identification is provided by using direct system interactions with the calling party. Predetermined messages and acquired responses are used to identify the caller for the called party. This provides the system user and call management system with knowledge of who each caller is so that appropriate priority and special handling can be applied to each call.
Specialized databases containing caller information are used to identify callers as part of Proactive Caller Identification.
The call management computer automatically answers each call, identifies the called party, determines the call type and identifies the calling party. The call management computer alerts the called party system users through the organization""s local area or wide area networks or via the Internet, providing the called party direct call control via their workstation.
Users may utilize the call management system from remote locations having the same features and functions as though they were onsite.
A system user can handle multiple calls at the same time, knowing who each caller is and applying appropriate priority to each call, eliminating xe2x80x9cvoice-mail-jailxe2x80x9d since only humans, not machines, send callers to voice mail and reducing the incidence of xe2x80x9ctelephone tagxe2x80x9d. This capability improves the user""s ability to service multiple customers at the same time, as well as saves the time and costs of the otherwise inevitable xe2x80x9ctelephone tagxe2x80x9d.
In accordance with the invention, certain callers may be identified as xe2x80x9cVIPxe2x80x9d callers. When an incoming call is identified as originating from a VIP caller, special handling of the call is initiated. The special handling may include personalized voice messages in the user""s own voice, user-generated voice xe2x80x9cmenusxe2x80x9d for the caller, receipt of and routing based on caller-entered information, special call rerouting inside or outside, including xe2x80x9cfollow mexe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cfind-mexe2x80x9d rerouting of the call to the user, even when the user is out of the office, and/or a distinctive ringing sound to alert the user. xe2x80x9cPage mexe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cBeep mexe2x80x9d features are also included, even for calls which are routed to voice mail or elsewhere.
The system routes or conferences calls from any station directly connected to the system, connected to the system via a PBX or other switch, or connected to the system via the public service telephone network or via Internet. The Call Management System views all sources and destinations as equivalent, only differing in their technological access requirements.
xe2x80x9cCall tagsxe2x80x9d which may be digital, text or voice messages, may be attached to voice calls by any system user to provide additional information to other system users to whom the call may be transferred or conferenced.
The Call Management System identifies and automatically receives Fax and data calls directed to each individual system user. Once received and stored in the call management database, the user is alerted to the presence of the file and allowed to transfer it to his/her workstation for further examination or use. Likewise, Faxes or data files can be sent to selected or specified receivers through the Call Management System with individualized Fax banner information for each user.
Summaries are maintained of all incoming and outgoing calls in an interactive, real-time, user-accessible xe2x80x9ccall logxe2x80x9d portion of the Call Management Databases, allowing the called party to know who called, when they called, which calls were missed even if no voice mail or other form of message was left, and to return calls automatically through simple mouse clicks.
A single telephone call can retrieve voice messages, e-mail, Fax and data messages even though in different forms and stored in different places. Users are provided a variety of retrieval mechanisms including: sending to a remote Fax machine anywhere in the world, or sending to a remote computer. This improves the ability for traveling and at-home users to stay in touch with all their information and thus their customers and prospects.
Voice mail-jail is prevented because only humans, not machines, send callers to voice mail. The Call Management System transfers callers to voice mail when system users request or because of their VIP rules, it alerts users when voice mail exists for them to hear and it utilizes voice mail access to provide xe2x80x9cOne-Call Message Retrievalxe2x80x9d of user""s e-mail, voice mail, Fax, and data.
The Call Management System monitors the current status of all system users and makes status information available to all other system users on demand.